Left Leads French Election in Blow to Le Pen's Far Right and Macron

GENERAL ELECTION - PARIS - French political parties faced the daunting task of putting together a government on Sunday after the second round of elections threw up a hung parliament, with a leftist alliance unexpectedly taking the top spot ahead of the far right.

The results, based on pollsters' projections, were a setback for Marine Le Pen's nationalist, eurosceptic National Rally (RN), which opinion polls had predicted would be the largest party, but which placed only third.